Murder in Baldur's Gate: Tiny Sneak Peek

[Scrivener of Doom]

Hmm. What do you mean, "released?"

It's a single session mini-adventure that was released for the launch weekend. I was just "lucky" to be in the right place at the right time ("lucky" because I am not exactly impressed).

 

[Blackwarder]

I was at my friendly local game store today, and I mentioned that I was really looking forward to my pre-order of Murder in Baldur's Gate. My buddy working there, as part of trying to convince me to run it for Encounters, showed me the store copy of the adventure. I sneaked a peek, mostly looking for details I can use in my regular game to lead up to the module.

What I found isn't really spoilers, but it is DM material, so I'll put it in sblock tags just to be sure.

[sblock]The events of the Baldur's Gate computer game are taken as canon (I didn't see a reference to BG2, but I didn't look very hard), with the main character being a human fighter named Abdel Adrian. After scourging the Sword Coast, Adrian retired to Candlekeep. He is now over 100 years old, and looks a lot like the iconic wizard from Pathfinder. Thanks to his divine blood, he still has the vigor of youth (though he has apparently forgotten everything he knew about fighting, since he's a level 2 NPC). He is now a duke of Baldur's Gate, and somewhat of a rock star -- the opening scene actually has someone in the crowd shout out, "We love you, Adrian!" to which he responds, "I love you too, Baldur's Gate." Pretty cheesy stuff.

The adventure begins with a public assassination attempt on Adrian's life. He is very likely to die if the PCs don't intervene.

The Bhaalspawn monster is described as bloated and blood-soaked. I found this relevant, since I wanted to stick one into my regular game in the run-up to the module.

The 60-page Campaign Guide looks like a great DM resource. It has information on the city's backstory, important NPCs and factions, etc. It also has descriptions of pretty much every part of town, with lots of illustrations and maps.

The 30-page adventure has absolutely no crunch--all the monster stats are online, and I suppose DMs will just have to improvise check DCs.

The adventure seems to be a blend of sandbox and plot-driven style. The booklet is divided into stages, with events in each one. I didn't get a great look at how it is meant to be played.

The DM screen is really cool--the player-facing side is a keyed map of the city (it's actually the screen Rodney was using in the Lich-Queen live game). I didn't get a good look at the DM side, since I was so excited by how cool the player side is, but I think it breaks down the stages of the NPCs' plans.

One thing that disappointed me is that it doesn't come in a box. The cool cover art we've seen is just an 11"x17" piece of magazine-like paper that wraps around the booklets. Not a dealbreaker, but it would have been nice to have it in a format that doesn't need Scotch Tape every time I want to put it back on the shelf.

The characters on the cover are important NPCs who try to manipulate the PCs. Even the green lantern guy is a duke or something.[/sblock]

Finally! a good preview of the adventure without it being dominated with angst over the lack of battle maps for 4e, thanks!

My players all played BG, for some it was the first D&D game they ever played so all the BG reference will be greatly appreciated, also it's seems weird to me if you publish an adventure set in Baldur's Gate not to have reference to the greatest moments of the city in FR lore.

Warder

 

[YRUSirius]

Exactly. People are blowing this fan service out of proportions. Again.

Just what happened to the DM who would modify pre-written adventures to their taste? Never mention the space hamster if your players never played BG. Done. Just don't do the Adrian dialogue. Done.

This is all just fan-service for those who want it. Ignore it, if you don't want it.

-YRUSirius

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

Exactly. People are blowing this fan service out of proportions. Again.

Just what happened to the DM who would modify pre-written adventures to their taste? Never mention the space hamster if your players never played BG. Done. Just don't do the Adrian dialogue. Done.

This is all just fan-service for those who want it. Ignore it, if you don't want it.

-YRUSirius

You're deliberately missing the point.

Of course a DM can modify an adventure to get rid of the crap. My concern is that the crap is coming back. While 2E is looked back at some sort of glory days for FR - and in many ways, it was - it was also the time when a lot of silly content got added under the FR brand. I don't want to see that again. I would like to see the sort of products that were added under Steven Schend's stewardship... not the silly stuff. And this is not being FR-specific: TSR tried to find "teh funny" in a few 2E products such as Castle Greyhawk and Gargoyle and it simply didn't work.

As for your "fan service" comment, that implies it's a free service. It's a paid for product, not a free service. People are expressing an opinion about it as to whether or not it presents value for money and why. Do you understand?

 

[MerricB]

As for your "fan service" comment, that implies it's a free service.

You obviously misunderstood what "fan service" means. It doesn't mean fan-generated content. It means a deliberate nod by the creators to the fans. It originates in anime culture (most often referring to scantily dressed characters only there to please the fans), but has been spreading elsewhere and become more generalised in use.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Fanservice

I don't think it's quite the correct term here, but I understand where YRUSirius is coming from.

The inclusion of a statue of Minsc and Boo in Baldur's Gate is *exactly* the right thing to do. The addled barbarian and his furry friend are iconic parts of the game - so much so that Empire Magazine this year still ranked Minsc & Book at #11 of the 50th greatest video game characters of all time.

Frankly, I'd be far more worried about Wizards if they didn't include a reference to Minsc.

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

Thanks for that, [MENTION=3586]MerricB[/MENTION]. I stand corrected on that part of my comment.

 

[MerricB]

The 30-page adventure has absolutely no crunch--all the monster stats are online, and I suppose DMs will just have to improvise check DCs.

Well, 3E has extensive check DCs in its rulebooks, 4E has a standardized table and so does Next, so that shouldn't be too hard - I seem to recall check DCs in the Launch Event booklet, though.

I've just been reading reviews of the Baldur's Gate novels (which is where Abdel Adrian) came from. They're quite hilarious - the novels are apparently appalling. My general take on it is that the computer game happened, and we'll just use Adrian's name for the main character (as, let's face it, it's a bit difficult to get one from the computer game when you got to name him!)

There are a number of additional events on the product page for the adventure (here), as well as the monster stats. Based on those, it looks like a challenging adventure to run, but challenging in a good way; it's a long, long way from the linear dungeon-crawls of most of 4E's HPE series.

Sigh. Still need to see the adventure proper. The Launch Event expands the initial encounter in the adventure substantially - at least that's what the event notes say - and again will be challenging to run.

Cheers!

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

(snip) I've just been reading reviews of the Baldur's Gate novels (which is where Abdel Adrian) came from. They're quite hilarious - the novels are apparently appalling. (snip)

They were written by the long-time FR editor Phil Athans. He also wrote one of the worst volumes in the Spider Queen series... and an Ayn Rand-inspired FR trilogy that was simply an abomination. I'm not sure if the Baldur's Gate novels were better or worse. I understand he is quite a good editor... but I think it's fair to say we will never see him as an author of a FR novel again.

 

[YRUSirius]

I don't see any problem. I ignore the books, but I recognize the video games. I'm no canon whore. If the canon suits me, I use it. If not, I on it. The space hamster and the Adrian dialogue are how long? Two sentences? Hardly a waste of the price of the module. The crazyness is still in check. This module is no Gates of Firestorm Peak, and if it were, I would ignore it. Btw, all the artwork released so far around D&D Next gives me a very 'neo-classical' vibe. I doubt they will introduce massive amounts of goofy weirdness. And it's still just a ga,e and no MacBeth btw.

-YRUSirius